This invention relates generally to systems and methods for managing information and particularly to network-based systems and methods for managing tasks.
Organizations may have a large number of projects and a large number of teams of personnel working on different projects. For example, businesses engaging in complex deals, such as commercial financing, mergers, acquisitions and real estate transactions, generally conduct a due diligence analysis to access the financial strength, operational characteristics of a business, collateral and/or business value, management strength, industry dynamics, and the proposed structure of the transaction and the party or parties involved in the deal. The due diligence analysis facilitates the financing business to better evaluate and manage the risk associated with the deal after the transaction closes.
During a due diligence analysis, information, known as risk management (RM) information, is gathered from many sources. RM information is often complex and relates to various relevant areas of the overall transaction. Accordingly, as with any project, a number of different members from the same team, or from other teams, may need to have access to the same RM information to complete their respective project. However, often several teams may individually collect data from a plurality of different sources as part of the project analysis. Accordingly, their efforts are often duplicated, and as such, the data may be entered multiple times on multiple different systems throughout the financing business. Moreover, individual collection of such information by various persons increases the risk of overlapping data collection and decreases the time efficiency associated with each project. Further, individual reporting by one person associated with the business to other persons associated with the business increases the risk of providing inconsistent or incomplete data during the documentation process, which may result in increased cycle time and costs, inhibiting access to appropriate information by other personnel, and/or decreasing the efficiency of each person within the team. Additionally, because various teams may collect information, the information may not be centralized for future use by other teams.
Because of the time and expense associated with managing project information, at least some known companies outsource these responsibilities to an outside entity that manages this information and the duties associated therewith.